Scale: Over ₹30,000 crore looted from approximately 2 crore (20 million) depositors — mostly poor and lower-middle-class families. The scam collapsed in 2013, leaving millions destitute. 220 agents died by suicide. Justice has been agonizingly slow: by 2023, only ₹140 crore had been refunded.

TMC leaders implicated: Madan Mitra (arrested), Sudip Bandyopadhyay (arrested), Tapas Pal (arrested). All were senior party figures.

Scale: Collected ₹17,520 crore from over 1 crore depositors. A massive Ponzi scheme that targeted the rural poor. The Asset Disposal Committee had refunded only ₹72.76 crore to 94,627 victims out of 30.77 lakh applicants by August 2025.

Political nexus: TMC MP Tapas Pal publicly stated that Rose Valley chairman Gautam Kundu met Mamata Banerjee multiple times at Delo's bungalow in Darjeeling. The meetings were allegedly to seek political protection.

What happened: Undercover journalists caught senior TMC leaders accepting cash bribes in exchange for political favors. The footage was released just before the 2016 elections.

Implicated: Mamata Banerjee, Moloy Ghatak, Kalyan Banerjee, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, and others. In May 2021, Hakim, Mukherjee, and Madan Mitra were arrested by the CBI. The Calcutta High Court stayed their bail, sending them to judicial custody.

Political fallout: Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari, both implicated, defected to the BJP. The sting destroyed public trust in the TMC's leadership.

In May 2023, a single bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelled the appointments of approximately 32,000 teachers due to irregularities. However, in December 2025, a division bench set aside this order, citing no evidence of "systemic cheating" and the immense hardship caused after nine years of service.

Key arrest: Former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested with ₹50 crore in cash and jewellery linked to the scam. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth nearly ₹700 crore across multiple cases.

The Supreme Court declared the entire recruitment process "vitiated and tainted," ordering the cancellation of 25,753 appointments. The court found widespread manipulation of OMR sheets, "rank jumping," and a network of officials who sold jobs for cash.

Arrested TMC leaders: Manik Bhattacharya (MLA), Jiban Krishna Saha (MLA), and Partha Chatterjee. The ED traced a money trail through a network of shell companies.

Impact on education: A decade-long pause in recruitment severely degraded the state's education system. Thousands of qualified teachers were humiliated, and the public lost faith in institutional processes.

Anubrato Mondal — a TMC strongman — was arrested by the CBI in 2022 for smuggling cows to Bangladesh. Reports suggest he amassed a personal wealth of ₹2,000–3,000 crore through coal, sand, and cattle smuggling. He is expected to be named in supplementary charge-sheets for coal and sand smuggling.

Sheikh Shahjahan — another TMC leader — was charged with money laundering in 2026. The ED alleged he used political support to build a "reign of terror" based on land grabbing, illegal fish farming, and extortion.

The TMC government refused to transfer land for border fencing along the India-Bangladesh border for 110 km across 9 districts, including Murshidabad, Malda, and Nadia. Mamata Banerjee demanded that the Centre first complete pending fencing on already-provided land and roll back the 2021 notification that expanded the BSF's jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km.

Consequences: The BSF stated that the unfenced stretches had become a "safe corridor for criminals, infiltrators, and counterfeit currency." After the BJP came to power in May 2026, the new government resolved the issue within 45 days.

The crime: Suzette Jordan, an Anglo-Indian woman, was gang-raped in a moving car on Park Street, Kolkata — a prominent area.

Official denial: Mamata Banerjee dismissed it as a "sajano ghatana" (fabricated incident). Her ministers questioned the survivor's character and motives for being out late at night.

Consequences: The victim was ostracized, forced to move homes, and unable to find work. IPS officer Damayanti Sen, who led the investigation and proved the assault, was transferred — seen as a punishment. Suzette Jordan died in 2015 without seeing justice. The case created a deep sense of disillusionment and apathy.

The crime: A young doctor was raped and murdered at R.G. Kar Medical College in August 2024.

People's movement: Unlike Park Street, this triggered an unprecedented, spontaneous people's movement. Junior doctors, teachers, homemakers, and gig workers united across the city. Arch-rival football clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal fans stood together, blocking thoroughfares for hours.

Impact: The protests were decentralized and non-political. They shattered social barriers and signaled a new willingness to defy state-imposed restrictions. Even Durga Puja organizers refused state funding as a mark of protest. The public mood remained one of grief and anger, highlighting a deep rift between the people and the state.

BJP claimed that over 300 of its workers were killed in political violence during the TMC's rule. A fact-finding committee accused the TMC government of "state-sponsored violence," including gangrape of a woman and post-poll intimidation. The "syndicate culture" and fear of political retribution created a climate of insecurity across the state.

In the run-up to the April 2026 elections, Abhishek Banerjee said, "We will play DJ music after May 4" — interpreted as a call to violence and celebration of victory. After the TMC's defeat, the West Bengal CID summoned him, filed an FIR, and questioned him for over five hours. He defended himself by asking why Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement that TMC workers would be "hung upside down" was not investigated.

Mamata Banerjee publicly claimed that she knew "who got the killing done" in the murder of Bangladeshi activist Usman Hadi. She directly linked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to the assassination, alleging that he had called her to suppress the case.

Fallout: A lawyer filed a complaint for sedition, criminal provocation, and breach of national security. The Bangladeshi government downplayed it as a "defeated leader's comment," but the remarks created a diplomatic crisis and stoked anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh. Analysts called the move "acutely anti-national."

In March 2026, Mamata warned: "You are safe because we are here… if a community unites, in one second, they will finish you off completely!" This was widely criticized as an attempt to weaponize communal fears for political gain, contradicting her earlier secular image. An FIR was filed against her for stoking social discord.

Mass rebellion: Within weeks of losing power, roughly three-quarters of TMC MLAs revolted against the leadership. Up to 20 of the party's 28 MPs sought to break away from the parliamentary group.

Asset freeze: TMC treasurer Arup Biswas wrote to freeze three party bank accounts holding ₹440 crore. Rebel MLAs filed complaints of extortion and illegal funds, demanding a forensic audit. Ex-ministers like Udayan Guha and Sujit Bose were arrested.

Root cause: The party was held together by "Mamata's brand value and state resources." Once power was lost, patronage evaporated, and the fragile coalition of local strongmen imploded. The party now faces an existential crisis.